Video information can be provided in many forms including sequences of video images that, when displayed in a sufficiently rapid fashion, present convincingly moving images. In some circumstances, video information (and particularly moving video information) can comprise a voluminous quantity of information. For example, a videotape that includes the output of a surveillance camera in a store can store and represent hours of surveillance information. There are times when a reviewer will wish to determine when and if something of interest has been recorded on such a videotape. In the past, such a reviewer must usually either review the entire tape in real time playback, or utilize a fast-forward/preview feature to attempt to locate the video information of interest in a more rapid fashion.
There are times when such techniques do not produce acceptable results, either because the review requires too much time or because the information of interest is not reliably noted. In an attempt to address these concerns, other prior art techniques seek to provide a corresponding video sequence summary that essentially provides a temporal thumbnail representation of the original video sequence. Such a summary typically requires reduced storage requirements and can be viewed in a reduced amount of time as compared to the original video sequence. When the summarization technique utilizes only time-based frame/video content reduction, however, the resultant summary may well exclude video content of importance and/or concern to a future viewer. Some content-based abridgement techniques have been suggested, but in general many such techniques tend to be quite computationally complex (with some even requiring multiple iterations of the content-reduction process). Other techniques seem better attuned to classifying a given video sequence instead of yielding a resultant video summary. As a result, a content-based mechanism or process to automatically yield a generally useful video summary of a given plurality of graphic images in a relatively non-complex fashion and at reasonable cost remains unmet.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various embodiments of the present invention. Also, common but well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are typically not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments of the present invention.